Three Reasons Why Your Company Should Invest Time in Google+ Feb, 14, 2012 Andrea Freeman

As you may know, Google+ launched its brand pages for organizations and businesses a little over a month ago. Like Facebook Business Pages, Google+ brand pages are used to promote activities, share information, and interact with fans/stakeholders. What was your first reaction to the initial launch? Were you excited or did you think it was just another social media channel?

You might already devote a lot of your time to managing a Facebook and Twitter page so you may think that adding another social media channel to your to-do list isn’t all that important.

Before you dismiss the idea of investing time into a Google+ page, consider these top three advantages.

Google+ brand pages are professional, informational, and industry-specific focused.
Okay, so Google+ has 40 million users compared to Facebook’s 800 million, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start the buzz about your business and be heard. The most popular brands were quick to implement engagement tactics to interact with fans on their new brand pages.

Think about the advantages of having a smaller user base. Unlike Facebook, applications, “Happy birthday!” comments, and games people play are not a part of Google+ so you can direct your attention to those in your circles, otherwise known as your target audience(s), create and maintain strong relationships with your customers, and focus on the content that really matters: yours.

Having a Google+ brand page will impact search rankings Since Google has a strong presence in the internet world, they are the ones who decide who appears first in searches. By having a brand page, you can improve and increase your visibility.

If the possibility to highlight Google+ pages is near, your brand page could appear at the top of a search. Since the initial launch, Google didn’t change anything to its existing method. What does this mean? It means that they indirectly favor their brand pages by placing them on high importance on factors such as “content freshness” so obviously, with Google+ pages, content is more likely to be considered fresh than non-Google+ pages. Up to the top of the search your business goes!

It’s only a matter of time until Google+ will be integrated with other their services such as Places, Maps, Web/Image search, and YouTube and surpass social media rankings. Why? Because Google has the means to promote its social network and pages from within, something Facebook and Twitter cannot do.

Google is always evolving so if a feature that enables users to bypass search altogether is unveiled soon, Google+ could be the answer for businesses in the future. What this means is that if user enters a “+” before an inquiry, s/he could immediately be sent to the organization’s or business’s page, therefore increasing traffic. If this kind of feature takes off, those without a Google+ page will be neglected.

Your Google+ page is essentially a second website for your business.
Tell me, could you really say no if your Google+ brand page could look like this? Having a brand page is just like a second website, only better. Instead of waiting for people to find you, those interested in your business or organization are already there waiting for you. Through the +1 feature, a Facebook-like button, traffic can increase to your page when users read and communicate to their circles what they like about the content you share. Moreover, you can see how your audience(s) engages with your brand and how they feel about it.

Check out NASA’s Google+ page. They were one of the first government agencies to create a Google+ page and it looks like they’re off to a great start on catching up with their number of Facebook fans with little over 58,000 people in their circles.

Currently, Google+’s hangouts (live group video chats) are limited to 10 people, but can you imagine having industry-focused chats with those in your circles? Facebook users will soon find themselves on Google+ because of closer ties with those in their communities.

Although there aren’t a lot of Google+ users at the moment, set up your Google+ page anyway and begin expanding your presence online. It’s like a city. You want to build a big city that people can grow into. While Google+ continues to grow, take the time to update others about your brand, maintain your page, grow your circles, and wait for the number of users to roll in.

If you aren’t sure if Google+ is right for your business and would like to talk with an Envision Interactive social media expert, visit us at: www.envisioninteractive.com. We look forward to being your plus one!